Young readers log 2 million pages
Gary Moskowitz
NORTHEAST GLENDALE -- The site of students marching down the street
and making a lot of noise can sometimes be something to get nervous
about, but on Friday it was all smiles and good times.
A line of Glenoaks teachers, staff, students and parents paraded down
the boulevard from the school’s campus to nearby Glenoaks Park Friday to
celebrate reading.
Students wore Glenoaks Elementary T-shirts, waved pom poms and
American flags and sang the Glenoaks school song as they walked.
The group then had lunch in the park and paraded back to the school’s
campus.
Glenoaks students were challenged this school year to collectively
read 2 million pages between October and April, and they did it.
Top readers in each class -- students who had read the most pages
during those months -- wore red, white and blue patriotic visors during
the parade.
Third-grader Sofia Kim, 9, was one of the school’s top readers. And
reading is a always a journey, according to Sofia.
“Reading takes me places. Every time you read you go somewhere and
it’s an adventure,” Sofia said.
Nine-year-old Mary Bayandzhyan read about 2,000 pages between October
and April, and said it wasn’t hard to do.
“Reading is fun. My favorite part is getting to know the characters,”
Mary said.
Second-grader Alex Mourdian and first-grader Cathleen Hong were top
readers every month.
Glenoaks Principal Sally Buckley said the event is tied to the
governor’s reading challenge, where schools who read the most are awarded
cash prizes.
Glenoaks was awarded $5,000 last year for its reading efforts, Buckley
said. Award money then goes toward school supplies and programs, Buckley
said.
“Research shows that best way to improve performance is to get them
reading as much as possible. And we encourage their parents to support
them at home,” Buckley said. “The more they read, the better they are
going to do. And parents help by making it a priority in the home, also.”